Display assemblies including electronic displays are becoming more prevalent in vehicles as customer demand for passenger entertainment increases. The electronic display offers visual access to information and entertainment, i.e. infotainment, and, for example, can be used to expand the display of hand held electronic devices for viewing stored movie playback, music videos, etc. The display assembly may be positioned to be viewed by occupants seated in a rear row of seats. For example, the display assembly may be mounted to a roof of the vehicle, e.g., an overhead flip-down display assembly, or may be mounted to a seat back.
Since the occupant of the rear row of seats may be seated closer to the display assembly, the occupant may contact the display assembly in a vehicle impact, e.g., a front end impact. As such, the display assembly may be designed to comply with Head Injury Criterion (HIC) testing standards. The HIC is a measure of the likelihood of head injury arising from an impact. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) utilizes the HIC as a tool for measuring head injury, and is a primary factor in determining the vehicle safety rating.
There remains an opportunity to design a display assembly that allows for the management of the energy that may result in a reduction of the impact energy transferred to the occupant.